Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has just released another instalment of his podcast series on ‘Nostalgia’.
In the latest podcast, Chris interviews Dr William Rowlandson, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages, who talks about growing up in the West Country and the roots of his love for teaching.
William identifies a ‘binding thread’ which runs throughout our lives from school through to retirement. What emerges in the conversation is the role that passion plays in William’s life, and how he prefers to see himself not as a lecturer but as a facilitator who is able, through dialogue and interaction, to help students foster their passions in life.
William discusses the influence of Sartre and Graham Greene and the impact that 49p Penguin books – which kickstarted his belief that a book is ‘a friend, a teacher and an antagonist’ – that were sold in a bookshop near his school had a particular influence on him when he was growing up. The difference between his and his children’s apprehension of music is divulged, and William speaks about the way The Doors, Led Zeppelin and Orbital have the power to transport, and how The Beatles have played a seminal role in family road trips.
Chris’s final question then catapults the interview down an unexpected path on the problem of spheres of life with simplistic and disingenuous binary models.
The podcast is available here:
https://audioboom.com/posts/6896611-william-rowlandson